The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board on Friday said security reasons and checkmating examination malpractice informed its decision to introduce the use of the National Identity Number, NIN, for the registration of the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
The examination body noted that the directive was issued by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.
This was disclosed by the Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, during a virtual meeting with owners of computer-based test centres, service providers and other stakeholders to commence the 2021 UTME registration.
Oloyede asked candidates to make provide only their NIN at the registration centres and not their names.
He said, “We don’t even require the name of the candidate; we want the NIN. We will then do the needful to pull the candidate’s data and the process will go on from there.
“It is for security reasons. It helps us avoid impersonation, but there is a bigger picture. There is insecurity in the country and we know that many of these problems are there because we have identification problems. We can’t identify every citizen, where he is and what he is doing.”
Oloyede added that candidates must make use of accessible SIM cards which have never been used for UTME registration.
According to the registrar, talks were ongoing with the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, to grant a conditioned waiver to an estimated 20 per cent of candidates without SIM cards.